artvideos

“THE KEY TO MY GRANDFATHER’S HOUSE,” written and photographed by David Imbrogno and video produced by Douglas Imbrogno is a powerful, moving photo-poem-essay on the immigrant tale of one Italian family. But it could be the kindred tale of millions of families across innumerable cultures through time.

This particular story began on a steep Calabrian hillside in the early 20th century in the southern Italian Province of Cosenza., moving through Ellis Island to the small town of Lorain, Ohio. It circles back upon themes of family, loss and heritage through text, photographs and sound effects.

IT IS A BIG ASK IN THIS SHORT-ATTENTION-SPAN ERA— 16 minutes of your undivided attention for this brotherly collaboration which reaches across two continents and two centuries. But after it is through, we feel you will come to understand the rewards of settling into a quiet space with your computer or phone and experiencing this journey with undivided attention. Your feedback is welcome and any other reactions it stirs in you from your own immigrant roots. In one way or another, we are all descendants of immigrants from somewhere and someplace. As my elder brother David puts it:

“The Key To My Grandfather’s House” story is not mine, not brother Doug’s, it is our family’s story … Normally I would say that I wrote it. Actually I feel as if I “channelled” it from our ancestors. I am usually a visual communicator but here the words came to the forefront and my photographs reverted to snapshots… Our Aunts Teresa and Loretta who accompanied us might have been the mediums through which our ancestors channelled the story.”

David adds: “Please, find a quiet place to enjoy the sixteen minute show. Turn on the sound and watch it full screen.”

A rose bush flanked in the back by an olive grove at the top of the Calabrian hillside where our father was born. | Photograph by DAVID IMBROGNO

THIS IS AN EXCERPT OF A MUCH LARGER written photo-essay (a prose-poem, really) by David. If interested in reading and viewing the longer piece, visit CowGarage.com or EvidenceofmylLife.com. This video can be viewed as a separate stand-alone work of art, but it is also a companion piece to a spoken word live performance.

FOR MORE ON THE VIDEO, to read the longer photo-essay or to schedule a live performance of “The Key,” subscribe to the websites above and to this website, TheWebTheater.com by clicking on the “subscribe” option in the right-hand top of the home page. You can reach either of us through those sites. Grazie mille!

THIS VIDEO IS A CO-PRODUCTION by David and Douglas Imbrogno. | Current version as of AUG 11, 2018

VIDEO: Why art can’t hurt youNOTES: During All Together Arts Week in Mercer County, West Virginia, in Spring 2011, singer-songwriter Albert Frank Perrone had a few important things to say about art while painting this window of his Mercer Street building. The line on the window comes from a painting by Fred Babb. NOTE: This video was one of four finalists in the “Micro-Film” category (under five minutes) of the 2012 Appalachian Film Festival in HuntingtonSOUNDTRACK: Excerpt of “I’ve Got a Little Voice” by Albert Frank PerroneLENGTH: 2 min 52 sec

VIDEO: The Making of an Elephant, Part 2NOTES: It is not just that often that elephants wander about West Virginia. But where do you get one and how do you get it here? The people behind the parade that concluded the 2011 All Together Arts Week in Mercer County, West Virginia on April 3, 2011, had always dearly desired an elephant for the event. Then, they manifested one. Not without a whole lot of work. Elephants, it must be remembered, are rather on the chunky side. It was a very special elephant – and this is her story, the concluding video in a special two-part WestVirginiaVille.com video report from our Large Animal Bureau. Part 2 of a two-part series. View Part 1 here.LENGTH: 3 min 21 sec

VIDEO: How do you make an elephant — and why?NOTES: They had dreamed of an elephant for the parade that capped off All Together Arts Week in Mercer County, West Virginia. But where do you get an elephant? A group of artists and elephant enablers decided they must do what they had to do: manifest an elephant all by themselves. This special two-part video takes to the street and the elephant works of The Room Upstairs in Princeton, West Virginia, to investigate how an elephant came to walk a street in WestVirginiaVille one fine sunny Spring day in 2011. Part 1 of a two-part series. View Part 2 here.LENGTH: 3 min 5 sec

VIDEO: A video of an encounter with a video installationNOTES: An encounter one day in 2013 with the video installation ‘Text Rain’ at the 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, Ky. This engrossing 1999 video installation piece using projection software is a work by Camille Utterback and Romy Achituv, installed in the elevator lobby of the Museum Hotel in downtown Louisville, Ky. The alphabet cascade of letters cleverly form lines from a poem by Evan Zimroth and the letters drop onto whatever human shape is picked up by a camera in the center of the piece.LENGTH: 2 min 31 secSOUNDTRACK: “Hyperdrive” by Lucas the Flow

VIDEO: 9 Ways of Looking at ‘Hallelujah’NOTES: Acclaimed metal sculptor Albert Paley’s monumental sculpture, “Hallelujah,” sprouted almost overnight (well, over the course of a weekend) in front of the Clay Center in Charleston, W.Va., in October 2009. The reaction to the 198,000-pound sculpture was immediate in a city and state where high-ticket monumental sculpture is as rare as straight roads. While fans of art and culture were happy to have this sculptural visitation from a much larger city, commentators to the local media dunned the nearly million-dollar sculpture as a rattletrap junk heap. In other words, the usual reaction to contemporary art. It is true that the sculpture, with its upward-thrusting lines, its meant-to-weather Cor-Ten steel and bronze elements going green, bears a resemblance to a wrecked interstellar rocket ship. That’s a compliment, by the way. For those of us who have come to appreciate passing it on our daily commute into town, it is a welcome bit of visual flair to an otherwise mundane cityscape.SOUNDTRACK: ” Fortune” by Lucas the FlowLENGTH: 3 min 15 sec

VIDEO: Out & About in West VirginiaNOTES: An old experimental video (note the smaller video size) for WVTV, the broadcast channel of WestVirginiaVille.com. All scenes certified of original West Virginia scenery.SOUNDTRACK: Live piano riff by Douglas Imbrogno
LENGTH: 1 min 44 min

VIDEO: Who makes the art?NOTES: This was a promotional video for Third Eye Cabaret, a listening room performance space I founded in Charleston, W.Va. The current incarnation of the Cabaret takes place at The Fireside Lounge above the Little India restaurant on the West Side of Charleston, W.Va.SOUNDTRACK: Vocals by Kathleen Coffee from a late-night jam at The Room Upstairs in Princeton, W.Va.LENGTH: 1 min 10 sec

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This is a portfolio of multimedia work by Douglas Imbrogno and selected collaborators from short-form videos to mini-documentaries and much more. Look around. If you'd like to talk about multimedia work, please visit the Contact page.